Away on an Ark
by PingasMachine
Summary: "My name's Miles Prower, but everyone calls me Tails. I... Don't really know how I got here... I remember a... fight, and then everything just.. blanks out." He muttered. As the human-covenant war comes to a close; something changes. In a faraway world, a final battle goes wrong. While the cause remains unknown, the slipspace event has changed history, but what will be changed?
1. Chapter 1

**If you came from my other story, this is completely unrelated. This is its own thing, so it wont effect any later stories unless expressively stated.**

 **Yeah, I've been very busy lately. I wanted to do this purely for fun, as it was something that just popped into my head.**

 **The Sonic universe that this is set in is primarily based on the Archie comics, but will refer to events that happened in some of the games.**

 _Chapter 1: Far from Home_

Truthfully, he had no idea what happened. Even the memory seemed blank, fuzy, out of reach. All he remembered was fighting Eggman.

But now he stared up at an unfamiliar sky, lit by an unknown galaxy. He didn't know where he was. It was steam hot. He could feel sand beneath him.

A desert, he guessed, and rolled over. The world resolved itself into something he could understand. He was inside a series of sandy cliffs. He was lying next to the cliff face, which towered above him. He seemed to be hidden by a low foot high rock.

Tails stood up and stretched his namesakes out and shook the sand from his fur. He really should have stayed put. Almost immediately, he heard an infantile yelp and a shuffling of feet in the sand.

He turned to the source, only to see a small form (albeit taller than himself) sprinting away behind a pile of rocks, babbling something unintelligibly.

Tails tilted his head in confusion, then quickly searched the area around himself. He was alone. He swallowed. He could already begin to feel fear crawling up the back of his throat. What if he was the only one to survive whatever had happened back on Möbius?

He was pretty sure that this wasn't his home planet; there seemed to be large objects rising in the distance; it seemed as though he was on a huge flower, near the centre of it.

There was something truly beautiful about it; It had to be absolutely huge. How could anyone build something even remotely close to that size? Surely it would be impossible.

Tails looked back up at the galaxy above. This time, though, he noticed something. Stars seemed to fade into nothing and then explode at an alarming rate. He frowned and concentrated on the sky, spotting a dark object moving across the sky.

Several, in fact. Judging from the randomness of the explosions, they all could be fighting each other. Something about that both awed and terrified the young fox.

How large would those ships have to be to seen from down on the surface of this object? He didn't even want to know. He suddenly became aware of something large stamping across the sand directly towards him. Tails spotted a huge, towering form walking directly towards him.

He didn't know what it was. It seemed to be almost like a robot made entirely of separate dark blue metal plates, with a helmet that seemed to have a "V" moulded into it. That wasn't the scariest part, though. He was quite clearly more than three times the Möbian's height and at least five times his weight.

Tails immediately backed up, raising his namesakes back up behind him, out of pure instinct. Tails' eyes darted left and right; he knew that he couldn't fight this thing head on.

It stopped about ten feet away from him. It's hands went to its head, removing the helmet. An angry... Almost gorilla-like face appeared from beneath it.

"Well, well." He grunted, almost to himself, "What have we here?"

Tails was silent for a second, and then overcame his shock of hearing an alien clearly speaking in a language that he understood.

"I'm... Um... Ah... Eh... My name is Miles Prower, but everyone calls me Tails. I'm a Möbian." He added the last bit quickly, as it struck him that the alien may not have even heard of his species before.

The alien raised his own eyebrows in shock at his speach, then spoke again.

"Well. I have not heard of a Möbian before." He said, once again as though he was talking to himself.

Tails remained silent, still contemplating ways out in the even that the alien attacked.

The alien snorted.

"I shall what the prophet makes of you." He announced, suddenly. "Come with me."

He drew a metal rod that had two spikes hanging from the bottom of it. Two holes were clearly pronounced in the front of it.

The Möbian put two and two together, and swallowed again. He considered it; then began to bend his legs to get a good launch when he needed the speed to get going.

"Any sudden moves, and there won't be enough of you left to fill the barrel of this here spiker." The alien growled angrily, his calm and collected demeanour collapsing in an instant.

Tails' bottom lip trembled slightly.

"Very well." He whispered.

The Alien grinned.

"Good!" He exclaimed, gesturing for Tails to approach him.

He complied, and the alien led him back to a group of similarly armored aliens. He was ordered to stay beside a large supply crate that had been casually dumped on the ground. The aliens were taking shelter from the sun under what seemed to be a crashed alien ship that was imbedded in the sand. There were several heavily armored vehicles scattered around the ship, presumably belonging to the aliens.

Tails was left to sit for what seemed like several hours in the sun, while being watched by a pair of smaller aliens that he'd seen earlier. They had weapons that seemed like toys; they were purple in colour and had several sections that glowed lime.

However, judging from the way that they held the weapons, they were obviously not toys. Tails had watched in the hot sun as the larger aliens talked amongst each other.

He was parched. He tried asking the smaller aliens for water. He was met with a strange response.

"No for you! Brutes tell us: You no give water to prisoners! Ripping apart if done so." The smaller alien finished this with a laugh.

Tails gleaned only one thing from this conversation. The larger aliens were called Brutes. If this was their actual species name, or merely a name that the smaller aliens gave them. Either way, it was better than calling them aliens.

Suddenly, a loud explosion echoed through the cliffs. The Möbian's sensitive hearing caused the sound to be amplified to the point where he winced. A loud ringing followed and he clutched his ears in an attempt to block out the noise.

He'd heard a lot of explosions in his time, but something about that one was different from all the others.

When the ringing receded, he became aware of the Brutes shouting and pointing at the top of the slope they were encamped on. At the top of it now lay a smoking... What seemed to be a stealth fighter or something similar.

The Brutes were now howling and snarling, grabbing weapons and climbing aboard their vehicles. The one that had led Tails to the group in the first place grabbed his shoulder roughly and dragged him onto one of the vehicles and planted his weapon's spikes firmly onto Tails' chest. The vehicle they were on seemed to have a central armored core with two skis attached to the sides, which the Brutes rode upon. The pilot sat on a chair at the rear.

Only a handful of Brutes and the smaller aliens were left to guard the remains of the crashed ship, while the rest packed up and advanced up the hill.

Tails heard gunfire from over the rise. The Brutes drove their vehicles up the slope and parked behind a pair of large rocks at the top of a large valley on the right side of the slope, behind where the fighter had come from. Tails was now thrown off the Brute vehicle, where the smaller aliens once again took custody of him; they once again forced him up against another supply crate, except this time he had more of a view.

From somewhere in the army of Brutes, one roared an order, and two vehicles, one single occupant "wheeler" as Tails had come to call it, and one "core driver" sped down the slope and into the valley below.

They drove straight down and then up the other side of the valley; going over a ramp and disappearing behind another slope.

Tails could sense tension in the air amongst the Brutes; they were all silent as they stared across the valley. Then gunfire started up. There were several sounds of alien weapons as well; and something exploded.

The gunfire continued. There were several cries from the Brutes in the distance, and then it all went silent.

Tails knew he should run, should take cover, but he couldn't. Something about this mystified him in such a way that he couldn't; even though his rational side screamed at him to do so.

A "core driver" lunged over the rise on the other side of the valley, making a beeline towards the Brutes encamped on the slope at the other side.

The vehicle was no longer driven by Brutes; instead by smaller beings dressed in green armor. From this distance, Tails couldn't completely identify any key features about them, but he didn't need to; as now both sides had opened fire. The Brute vehicles streamed from their encampment in the rocks and quickly moved to engage the newcomers.

A small quad suddenly leapt over the gap facing the Brute holdup and accelerated into the fray. The newcomers cheered loudly at the quad's presence, even though it seemed unarmed. Only one person drove it, though they were clad in much thicker armor than the other newcomers.

The appearance of the quad also had an effect on the Brutes. Many turned and roared down the slope, or focused fire on him.

"Demon!" One of them screamed.

The Brutes converged. A "wheeler" spun around and opened fire with both barrels on the quad. Huge yellow glowing shots about the size of Tails' head whizzed through the air. The quad took the first two shots, then the rider lunged off it, towards the wheeler, landing straight on the front of it.

With speed that would have impressed Sonic, he climbed over the huge spinning wheel and smashed the driver off of the vehicle. The Brute's armor exploded and he collapsed limply to the ground.

Tails watched the battle from above with morbid curiousity. Only one of the three smaller aliens who had been watching him initially were left; the other two had ran off.

The hijacker immediately took advantage of his new ride's armor and smashed into another, small one person purple vehicle that seemed to be hovering. It was blown apart, and the hijacker jumped off as he sent it full speed into the last remaining Brute controlled "core driver". It exploded violently, and the other "core driver's" crew all began to cheer on the lone soldier.

Tails watched on in horror but at the same time being unable to tear his eyes from the battle unfolding below. The soldier finally took down the last of the small purple vehicles with a well placed tri-shot burst from his rifle, which neatly eliminated the pilot.

Another set of cheers and bravos came from the "core driver". The Brutes howled and raised their weapons, but there were only a handful of them left.

The soldier began his advance up the hill, while behind him, the vehicle's main turret opened fire on the Brutes and the other aliens that were standing atop the hill.

Huge bright blue slugs whizzed through the air. A single shot nearly ripped a supply crate in half. Tails winced and shifted to take shelter behind something more permanent, such a rock formation.

"Hold brothers!" A brute yelled. "We shall slay the humans here!"

Tails' ears perked up. Humans?

Tails poked his head around the rocks, spotting a single brute. This brute was armed with what looked like a turret of some kind, except it had a long, elegant blade curled around the bottom of it.

He fired; Three tennis ball sized projectiles flew out in rapid succession. When they hit they detonated. However, the soldier executed one of the most brilliant dodges that Tails had ever seen in his life, even including everything that he'd seen Sonic do. The soldier twisted his waist and shifted slightly to dodge the first round, all without breaking his stride. For the second one he merely tilted his head to the left, and the round flew by with centimetres to spare. He fired a burst into the brute's head and kneeled to avoid the last round. He did this so fluidly and rapidly that it seemed almost graceful.

The brute recoiled as the first shot hit home, and his head snapped back. The soldier fired two rapid bursts into his chest. The brute's armor seemed to fail, exploding and then falling apart. A final burst was fired, and the brute hit the ground with a wet smack. Tails ducked back into cover as a volley of blue rounds whizzed by his rock.

"Foolish Unggoy!" The last brute yelled. "To me!"

The smaller aliens did as told; gathering around the last brute. The soldier advanced on them. Some Unggoy fired, but the rest were occupied by the "core driver's" fire from below.

As the soldier came closer, he shoulder his rifle and pulled off what Tails had initially assumed to be an exhaust port or oxygen tank of his pack. The way he held it immediately suggested to Tails that it was a rocket launcher.

He fired. A lone rocket accelerated into the mass of aliens and detonated with a huge roar. Tails found himself whimpering at the raw destructive power that was unleashed before him. Only a pair of Unggoy were left, and they retreated back down the slope from whence they had came.

There was now nothing hiding Tails himself from the soldier. And yet, when he turned, he seemed not to notice him, instead gesturing for the vehicle to come up the hill. Then he spotted the kitsune.

He paused, tilting his head to the side and pulling off his rifle and taking steady aim. Tails froze.

The soldier didn't react any further, merely standing still with his gun trained on the Möbian. It was at this point for the millionth time, Tails wished he'd gotten out here while he could.

The "core driver" powered up the hill, coming to a halt beside the soldier.

"What's up, chief?" One of the lesser armored soldiers asked as the vehicle pulled up beside the soldier.

Tails' eyes darted across at the band of about three troops that climbed off of the "core driver".

"What is it, sarge?" One of them asked, raising his own weapon.

"I don't know, son." A tall, pale-skinned, unshaven man replied.

Tails swallowed, only just beginning overcome the paralysis that gripped him.

He stood up.

"Um... Hi." He said quietly.

All the soldiers except for the more heavily armored soldier backed up slightly at that.

"It talks?" One asked incredulously.

Tails stood up. One of the troopers advanced, her weapon holstered.

"Hey there, little fella." She said. "What are you doing here?"

Tails sighed internally at being treated like an infant, but he didn't want to alienate the first people who had looked at him somewhat friendly intentions. He cleared his throat.

"My name's Miles Prower, but everyone calls me Tails. I... Don't really know how I got here... I remember a... fight, and then everything just... blanks out." He muttered.

She turned back to her squadmates. He had a brief conversation that Tails was unable to catch. She then turned back. The heavily armored soldier still hadn't lowered his weapon.

"My name is Silvey Hargey. I'm a marine in the United Nations Space Command. We came her on a frigate called the Forward unto Dawn. The human race has been at war with an alien alliance called the Covenant. We beat them back at Earth, and they fled here. We followed to this place. It's a huge Forerunner construct called "The Ark"." She told him.

Tails looked up towards the sky. Still, flashes of weapons fire lit up the sky. The sun, or perhaps fake sun, shone down on all of them.

"Do you have any water?" He asked, being reminded of his thirst suddenly.

"'fraid not." One of the troopers grunted. "We only hit dirt 'bout five mins ago. Core don't five marines supplies for hit dirt missions. We'll be getting our supplies later. If we make it, that is."

"We got the chief, son, we'll make it." The Sargent grunted.

The soldier that they call 'the Chief' was no longer pointing his weapon at Tails, but it wasn't holsters, and the kitsune was certain that the soldier was still judging wether or not he was a threat.

"We just got orders to clear an LZ for the Commander's frigate. We need to hurry on over there. The commander's frigate ain't the Autumn; she's gonna get torn apart pretty quickly against those Covvie cruisers." The Sargent grunted, and climbed back on board the vehicle.

"Do you fight?" Silvey asked Tails. "I thought you mentioned a fight earlier?"

He considered what he would tell them.

"I suppose I do. I wouldn't fight with a gun though. The group I was a part of had a thing against guns." He sighed.

She tilted her head slightly.

"How did you fight then? With swords and shields?" She asked.

Tails snorted quietly to himself.

"No... It's difficult to explain. We... Used everything besides guns, and even then I occasionally bent those rules when I was improving my planes. So, yeah... We used everything, swords, our abilities, everything." He was intentionally selective of what he actually told them, just in case he would ever have to fight them.

No need to let them know what exactly he was capable of. Now, normally, Tails would have been much less secretive, but something about this place seemed so foreign that he wasn't really willing to trust anyone here.

It didn't help that there was a seven foot tall supersoldier judging him from a few feet away, weapon still at hand.

"Well, If you want you can come with us, but you're going to have to fight." The Sargent grunted. "And I'd recommend a gun for fighting the Covenant. Those guys won't stop while you walk up and punch 'em. I can't see you punching 'em making any difference anyway."

Tails scowled slightly. He was stumped at the conundrum before him. He had no other way of getting out of this whole thing, but taking arms along with them would go against everything that the Freedom Fighters had stood for.

Tails hated decisions like this. Was it worth it? He looked back at the Galaxy hanging overhead. He was far from home. He had to make a decision, and what decision he made would very well decide his life.


	2. Chapter 2

**So, We are back, once again. Little bit more setup, but for another part. Something interesting that I hadn't initally thought of, but had knew it couldn't be ignored. But, fear not, We'll be back to Tail's journey next chapter.**

 **For anyone from my other fic; the next chapter is still in the works, taking way longer than I intended, but it be out within a week. That's a guarantee.**

 **As for this chapter; I'm not sure what to think of it, exactly. I kinda think some characters felt a bit OOC, despite several revisions with fixing that in mind. Pah, your choice.**

 **Thanks for all the favs and follows for the last chapter: really appreciate it. So, R &R.**

Chapter 2: Forgotten Tunnels

"Sally." Someone said.

Eggman thought about that for a moment. Was he dreaming again? After all, he had had weirder dreams. _(Some of which involved himself becoming an immortal deity who could only scream "Pingas." So, those ones were... interesting...)_

"Sally, please wake up." The same person said.

Was he having a dream that he was the princess? He shuddered. Then his intellect kicked in. This wasn't a dream, as he had a reasonable amount of thought control ( _although this could be a lucid dream_ ) he was confident enough to open his eyes.

He saw grass. Or, more accurately, he saw dirt. He was lying face down on the ground. He rolled over onto his back and sat up. He was lying in the middle of an open grassy plain. He looked around. Nothing about this place seemed familiar. How did he get here?

He realised that his memory around that point was surprisingly blank. That was concerning; Eggman was sure that a previous invention had to have led to him being here, and he should have been able to remember it. Something caught his eye about ten meters away.

Closer inspection revealed it to be none other than Princess Sally Acorn herself. Beside her lay her talking computer. That explained why he kept hearing her name; her AI must have been trying to wake her.

Was she dead? Eggman slowly approached her still form. He doubted it; the Möbian had survived worse; and if Eggman was uninjured, the chances were that she was. He stood over her. It would have been so easy to bring his foot down hard on her neck, presumably snapping it in the process. But he wasn't that kind of person. He may have done horrible things before, but he still had some little morality inside of him.

Besides, she may very well end up being the only company he would have. He supposed her computer would be useful for some number crunching, especially for finding out her the dimensional reactor had sent them...

Wait, the dimensional reactor? Where did that come from... Part of his memory flared to life. The dimensional reactor opened a Suliarn rupture in space-time and fed off the near endless flow of energy from within. He had just attached it to a Mech suit when the Freedom Fighters arrived.

He must have donned the suit, but the reactor had been compromised. That could have create a narco-reverb field and manipulated the 7 of the 11 variables of space. If that happened, he could literally be anywhere is the universe, let alone galaxy.

"You touch her over my dead body." The AI warned.

Eggman snorted.

"You're a program! An overly long series of code resembling a personality. How are you going to even touch me? We're not in your New Mobotrolis. You have no way of projecting a physical form." He replied.

"Really?" She hissed, and her computer form made a hissing noise.

Eggman waited for her to realise what was wrong.  
"My nanite control circuits aren't working..." She realised.

"Presumably a misalignment caused by hitting the floor at speed. Speaking of that, what is recorded in your logs about our fight?" He grumbled.

"So there is a use to being a program, eh?" She jeered. "Accessing..."

Eggman scratched his moustache impatiently.

"Hold... On..." She suddenly stammered. "They're corrupted."

Eggman sighed.

"Of course; my memory is shot, and yours is too." He muttered, amused by this turn of events.

"I can't... Why can't I... They shouldn't be... Why..." She was obsessing.

Eggman had created many AI in his time; and they all reacted this way to corrupted files. It was like cancer to an AI. The more they thought about it, the more they started to try to fix tiny bits of it, gradually spreading corrupted data throughout their directories. Eggman had had to delete several AIs entirely because they had completely degenerated into raving messes as their data became more and more corrupted.

"Purge those files immediately." He ordered.

"Why?" She asked cautiously.

"If you keep focusing on those files, you will eventually start grabbing small strings of corrupted data, try to crack them and eventually fill yourself up with corrupted data. It is the AI version of cancer." He explained.

"And how do you know this?" She snarled back.

Eggman let loose a little of his own repressed anger.

"I build robots! I program their AI! I know every single problem that an AI can have and how to fix it! I've terminated AIs personally to stop them from spreading corrupted files across multiple servers and access points." He growled.

When the AI spoke again, she seemed a bit cowed.

"What if we need these files?" She asked.

"We can't use it, and it's only a burden to you. Given that both you and I can't remember what happened, I'd say that Sally won't either. So, we're obviously not meant to remember how we got here. Wherever here is." He grunted.

"Well, we're beyond our galaxy, for one thing." She replied.

"How do you know that?" Eggman asked.

"Look up." She answered.

So he did. He immediately became aware of a huge stellar constellation overhead. Not just any constellation. An entire galaxy. He couldn't believe he hadn't noticed it before.

"Amazing." He muttered.

"I've also concluded that we are on some kind of station, presumably in the intergalactic medium." She announced.

"What makes you come to that conclusion?" He asked.

"Several reasons; One: Look towards the horizon. Can you see the... Wings of the station?" She replied cooly.

Eggman turned his head towards the horizon. He quickly spotted the huge platforms that seemed to curve slightly off into the horizon. In one direction, though, was a cluster of three tall pillars, and behind them, some kind of moon or planet.

"Also, that 'star' has not moved and inch since we began our conversation and nor has the luminosity changed."

Eggman grunted in agreement.

"I can't confirm the interstellar medium, but I can see objects overhead. Large ones in odd shapes." She continued.

Eggman looked up again. The sun was too bright, so he set his googles to decrease their light intake. He suddenly spotted a faint flash from above. And another.

"Well." He said. "Those objects must be starships."

A bright explosion lit up the sky.

"And they're fighting." He concluded.

"So there is intelligence present at this station." The AI mused.

"Exactly. Maybe getting home will be easier thanks to that." Eggman grinned.

"Or harder." She added.

"Quite possibly." He sighed.

There was silence for the next few seconds. Eggman had to make a plan. Being in unfamiliar territory, he'd need all the advantages that he could get. That included the princess and her AI.

Before anything came to mind, he heard something in the distance. It seemed to be approaching.

"Can you hear that?" He asked.

"Yes." She replied bluntly. "They are approaching from positive one six eight relative to planet in center."

"What are they?" He asked.

"Several high speed VTOLs. Moving this way in escort formation. They seem to have high energy signatures along their hulls, and in specs that indicate weapons." She told him hurriedly.

"We should hide then, eh?" He grunted. "No need to take chances. At least, not until we can create a survivable situation with them."

He looked around quickly. There was a cave in a rock face about a hundred or so meters away from them. He could make it.

He turned and picked up the computer and turned to make for the cave.

"What about Sally?" She growled. "You can't just leave her here!"

He turned and fixed his gaze back the prone Möbian on the ground. He sighed. He was tempted to leave both her and her AI out in the open, but he, in all fairness, needed all the help he could get to get back to Möbius. And having at the very least, an AI would be very helpful to get into the systems that had to operate the station.

In a move that he was sure he might very well regret, he grabbed the princess roughly by her shoulder and started dragging her towards the cave.  
The sound of the alien ships increased steadily, and Eggman narrowly managed to get inside the cave before the first alien ship whizzed by overhead.

It was a small thing, simply two wings with what looked like weapons attached to the sides, and a single canopy that looked like it could only fit one or two occupants. It was purple with a greenish tint added to the upper hull plating.

After it passed, two more like it passed. They moved faster and had trails coming from the two cylinders on the edge of their wings. Eggman guessed that they must actually be afterburners.

He heard the Möbian behind him stir somewhat. Another five of the craft passed overhead, moving quickly. He turned back and placed a finger to his lips.

"Shush!" He hissed urgently.

She opened he eyes and focused on him, but she was still too confused by the whole waking up thing to play him any serious attention.

Now a group of larger vehicles whizzed by overhead. They seemed to around thirty meters long and a pure mess of curves, with a cockpit in the front, and thick bulging back, and a set of rear fins. The engines were attached cleanly to the from sides of the wings.

Eggman was amazed by the technology that must have gone into these vehicles.

What was even more interesting, they seemed to escorting only single one of their own. The ships seemed to be clustered like a shell around a single ship. He guessed that it was carrying something important. Presumably a leader of some kind.

He heard a sharp intake of breath of breath behind him, and turned to see the princess jump to her feet and engage her ring-blades ( _I honestly forget what they are called, but I think the name is something like that_ ).

He raised a finger to his mouth.

"Shush!" He hissed. "They'll hear you."

"Who'll hear me?" She snapped back.

Eggman stepped aside slightly to show her the sky filled with alien ships whizzing by. Her eyes widened.

"See?" He growled. "Now stay down and shut up."

She deactivated her ring-blades and crept up beside him. At some point she had retrieved her computer, because she had it open on her lap.

"Nicole?" She asked quietly.

That name seemed familiar. At this point, Eggman had so many enemies that their names seemed to all blend together. Only the really important enemies seemed to stand out. He logged the name for future reference.

"Yes, Sally?" The AI asked quietly.

"Where are we?"

A pause.

"Unknown."

She tilted her head.

"How do you not know?" She replied. "You should have access to every satellite around Möbius, so you should have at least a set of GPS coordinates."

"We are not on Möbius. I do not know where we are, but we appear to be on some kind of space station." Nicole replied softly.

The last wave of alien ships passed by overhead and vanished from sight. They were all headed towards the group of three pillars in the distance, directly in front of the huge moon drifting behind it.

"Where did you take us?" The princess shouted angrily.

Eggman scowled at her outburst. He got to his feet to check if there were any latecomers passing by now. There were none.

"Hell if I know." He grunted. "It's you who messed with the dimensional reactor and caused a Narco-dump dropstream feed."

This was all mostly lies, as he had no idea what actually happened, but that didn't stop the words from having an effect on her.

"I have no idea where it put us." He announced, taking a step out of the cave, turning his back to her. "We're probably not even in the same galaxy, if we're even in a galaxy."

"That's not our fault." She protested. "You should have put some kind of safety mechanism or tested it before you decided to use it!"

"You interrupted those tests and you, you Freedom Fighters personally destabilised the core. You are as much to blame as I."7

She paused and looked down at the ground for a second."

"But, princess." He grunted, straightening to his full height. "If you want to get back to Möbius, I suggest we help each other."

She looked up at him suspiciously, but he could see that in her eyes, she realised there was no other choice in the matter. She sighed angrily.

"Just this once, Eggman, just this once." She growled.

Satisfied, Eggman started checking his own inventory. While his Egg-Mobile was gone, he still had his wrist mounted Egg-Toolkit.

In that toolkit, there was also the beginnings of a personal plasma rectifier that he'd been working on as a pet project. A little modification, he realised, could turn in into a blaster. He grinned. Not as defenceless as others would think.

"Any ideas of where to go?" Sally asked bitterly.

Eggman grunted. "Not towards those pillars, those should be crawling with aliens. And I'd rather chance getting caught on open land." He mused. "Any ideas."

"The cave." Nicole proposed.

Eggman raised an eyebrow and turned.

"What about it?" He asked.

"Further down, it seems to cease to be a natural formation. There must be a tunnel built further down it." The AI answered.

Eggman looked down into the darkness of the cave. He couldn't see anything beyond about fifteen or so meters. He attempted adjusting his googles, but to no avail.

"See anything?" He asked the princess.

She shook her head.

"Trust me." Nicole said. "There's an intelligently designed tunnel down there."

"Got a torch?" Eggman asked.

"No." Sally answered, and ignited her ring-blades. "I do have these, though."

They weren't very bright, but they were a source of light. Some of the cave was now visible.

"Ladies first." He offered, gesturing down the cave.

She grumbled something he didn't catch, and set off down the tunnel. Eggman checked to ensure there wasn't anything they'd left behind, and then followed her into the darkness.

About thirty meters in, the cave went on a descending u-turn. Sally led the way, with Eggman close behind. He fiddled away with the plasma rectifier during the trip, seeing he could enable a systematic charge enabler. After about five minutes, the princess suddenly stopped.

Eggman narrowly avoided tripping over her.

"What is it?" He asked, putting away his tools and his little project.

"Look at the walls." She whispered. "They change at this point."

Eggman looked at the nearest wall. In the faint blue glow, he identified the rocky cave wall, which fused directly into some kind of sudden flat, geometric wall setup. He followed it around. The walls all seemed to join the rock at the exact same point. Whoever built this place was clearly a master of building as these walls were perfectly straight, and joined each other seamlessly.

He ran his fingers along the walls.

"The architecture here is amazing. This isn't merely carved into the rocks, but this is actually a form of metal, which means someone planned this." He concluded.

"And if someone planned it..." The princess said slowly. "It has to lead somewhere."

Eggman nodded. They continued their advance into the dark corridor. After around fifty or so meters, they reached a corner turning to the right, and there was light coming from it.

Eggman looked around, but he couldn't see where the light was coming from. It seemed as though it came from the floors and walls, and yet there were no sources of light on these places.

Sally had noticed him stop.

"What's up?" She asked.

"There is light down here, but... Where is it coming from..." He mused aloud.

She quickly glanced around the surrounding area and realised what he was saying. She shrugged half-heartedly.

"If I could do half the things that the race that built this place could do, I would have conquered Möbius in half a day." He chuckled to himself.

She didn't hear him.

"Do you think anyone else was brought over?" She asked her AI.

"I cannot say." Nicole replied solemnly.

Eventually, they stumbled across a large door blocking he exit of the corridor. Even the door of this place seemed elegantly placed; it seemed lightweight and slick, and yet it was hard and unyielding. The princess attempted to cut it open, but no avail. The material it was made of seemed impenetrable. Eggman worked his way around the door, searching for weaknesses to exploit. There were none.

This door was perfectly made to keep itself shut. He scowled as he made another search, which turned up nothing, again.

It was clear by now that they were stuck. The only thing Eggman hadn't really looked at was the panel in the middle of the door. From what he had gathered, it seemed to be a handprint scanner. So no good there.

He supposed they could try hacking it there, but the panel was unbreakable and didn't come out of its housing.

They could have had Nicole attempt to overflow it; sending it so many different signals in a second that one had to be right and the door opened, but the door was not wirelessly designed, and there were no connection points for the AI to exploit.

It seemed hopeless. They'd been at the door for nearly an hour, according to Nicole's internal clock.

"We're not going to get through it." The Möbian behind him sighed. "We should go."

"No." Eggman growled. "I'm so close. I know it. I feel it."

This door had to have some way of getting in, but in truth, Eggman knew it was fruitless. He had only one trick left in his bag, and he was sure that it wouldn't work. He exhaled loudly. Why not try a gloveless approach.

He pulled of his glove and placed his hand on the panel. For the first time, he heard something coming from inside the door. The panel lit up bright blue, and he was frozen in place. For five seconds, he couldn't move at all. Then he was released and fell backwards on his rump.

His hand felt strange, he turned and examined it to realise that it was steaming slightly.

"Are you alright?" The princess asked, and for a second, he thought he detected a trace of concern in her voice.

He examined his hand as the steam faded.

"Been worse." He grunted.

He stood up and examined the door, which had slid open. He snorted.

"Looks like all it needed was the right touch."He noted.

Sally picked up her computer and peeked into the doorway. Eggman peeked his head in behind her. Inside, there was a large, unlit chamber. It was a stark contrast to the lit corridor they were in.

The princess raised her arm forward and reignited her ring-blade. The light cast by it barely lit up any of the room. Eggman wondered why it was so dark compared to the corridor.

"Looks fun." He muttered, gesturing forward into the room.

She glanced up and scowled at him, but she stepped forward and entered.

Nothing happend; the room remained dark and silent. Eggman followed her in. However, the moment he set foot in the room, a loud humming started and light flared through the chamber.

The room was huge and vast, and in the center of the room, a small column stood. A blue ball appeared above it. Shapes and fragments flowed from and around the ball.

It uttered a word:

 _Reclaimer._


	3. Chapter 3

**Well, Guys, It's been three weeks since my last update. Whoops. Anyway, thanks for any reviews and favs you gave me. Means a lot. Anyway, I saw the new vidocs for HW2 and Sonic Mania. I'm definitely looking forward to both. Anyway, R &R, and all that fun jazz.**

 _Chapter 3: Sand and Plasma_

Tails opened his mouth... And paused. He swore he'd heard something from downhill...

Suddenly the edge of the sandy slope was rent apart by plasma rounds. The humans pulled the Brute vehicle back quickly, but still some rounds of plasma smashed against it.

One of the humans swore, and the Sargent growled.

"Make yourselves useful, then!" He yelled, jumping out of the vehicle and landing in the sand, laying down to provide cover.

Tails saw his opportunity. Perhaps he could show them how he fought... Without weapons.

He turned and spun up his tails, using them to get of a quick boost as he started downhill, the Chief began his own sprint down the hill.

Tails was barely pushing himself, but the cyborg powered down the hill and nearly fifty kilometers per hour. The kit had never seen a human even top thirty, so this was a surprise.

The Chief slung his rifle over his back and attached it, along with his rocket launcher. From his thighs, he grabbed two smaller guns; which Tails guessed were SMGs.

There were perhaps five or so brutes at the slope of the hill, along with three Unggoy. Two brutes manned turrets. Upon seeing the two making the their way down the hill, they cried out, panicked, and opened fire with their turrets and regular weapons, primarily on the Chief. He was fine however, as he twisted and ducked, dodging everthing that was thrown his way.

Tails picked up his own pace, accelerating to more than eight kilometers per hour. All the same, the Chief struck first. He lunged into the air, jumping more than twice his height, and opened fire on an exposed Brute with his SMGs. The brute raised his own weapon, but was too late, as his armor exploded. The human crashed onto the alien, landing foot first and slamming the brute into the sand, firing all the time. The brute fell limp.

Tails turned his attention back to himself, and narrowly missed a plasma round. He spun backwards, executing a kind of backwards roll, while at the same time continuing his trajectory forward. It wasn't as impressive as it sounded, but it kept himself from getting hit by the burning round.

The kit quickly charged a spin dash and launched his own attack at the offenders, who were in fact, Unggoy. He slammed into one and sent it flying backwards until it slammed hard into the wreckage of a phantom.

There was a crunching sound as it hit home against the damaged hull. The other Unggoy turned tail and ran. Tails let him go.

The Chief was engaged by the four remaining brutes. One of the wielded a huge two-armed cannon with a blade curved around the rear bottom end of it. The cyborg backed up, expertly dodging the alien's swings. He holstered his SMGs and pulled a blue sphere from his leg. He pressed a button, and it glowed a light shade of blue.

The human expertly threw it, and it smacked into the brute, becoming attached to his armor. The alien paused and gave a roar of anger, and the grenade detonated. The blue explosion devoured the entire Brute, leaving nothing remaining but a blemish upon the sand.

Tails spun up another attack and launched himself at two brutes whom were distracted by the cyborg. He smashed into one and bounced off, powering into the one beside him before being thrown off once again.

The armor of the pair exploded from their bodies, and they roared in shock and anger. The human quickly mowed them down with a series of rounds from his rifle.

Tails stood, slightly dazed from his attack. The attack had been more like slamming into a brick wall more than anything.

A plasma round flew inches by his head. He instinctively ducked and prepared his own attack. The alien took a collection of rounds to the chest, but his armor did not break. He staggered backwards, though, his armor rapidly venting plasma.

Tails' spin dash breached the armor and threw the brute to the ground. Tails wondered if the alien was dead. Before he could check, the Spartan strode forward and fired a pair of shots into the head of the brute.

If he hadn't been dead beforehand, he definitely was now. There was silence; and then the marines cruised down the hill in their vehicle. They took in the scene with awe.

"Wow." One of the marines uttered.

"Well." The Sargent grunted. "Looks like you could actually be of some use to us then."

Tails couldn't help but feel a little pride at that statement.

"We need to double time it to the LZ." Someone said hurriedly. "Commander wants to set her frigate down, ASAP."

"Chief, whats-your-name, climb on." The Sargent ordered.

"I'm Tails." He muttered, as he hopped aboard.

The Chief did the same on the other side of the vehicle, and they set of.

One of the marines drew a damaged helmet at Tails. He could it and returned a confused glanced at the marine who had sent it his way.

"It still works." They (Tails found it difficult to tell their gender under their uniform, as the armor plates obscured key bodily features used for that kind of identification) replied. "I doubt it will fit your head, though."

"I'll see what I can do." He muttered quietly, mostly to himself, and began fiddling with the earpiece and mic attached to the green helmet.

They bounced down several cliffs, all of which ended on another short, sandy face. Eventually, they came to an intersection. One path continued down into a wide plain. There was a large structure there, what seemed like a wall, but it had an elevated walkway in front of it, around the middle.

Several Brute vehicles prowled around the wall, moving in a fashion that reminded him of Eggman's robots.

Down the other pathway, it was quiet. Only sand lapped slowly in the wind.

"Weeeeeeellllllll." The Sargent grunted. "Our choice is pretty obvious."

They turned into the empty passage and started down it. Tails turned back to tinkering with the helmet. He managed to separate the headpiece from the actual moulding of the helmet.

With a little tinkering, he formed a piece that could be wrapped somewhat tightly around his right ear. It would probably withstand a few spindashes before being shook loose.

He placed it onto his head and secured it. He flicked to the UNSC FLEETCOM channel and listened in.

"Let your cannons roar!" A deep voice shouted.

Tails heard a loud bang resonate over the COM and a bright flash filled the sky above.

Tails heard a couple of whoops from the marines on the vehicle.

"Fire Archer pods E1 through E5." A woman barked over the COM.

They pulled around a corner, turning to face another passage running almost parellel to the one that they had come from. However, unlike that one, there were two purple vehicles patrolling. They opened fire as soon as the UNSC forces rounded the corner. Several rounds splashed against the side of their vehicle. Several plasma rounds narrowly missed Tails; however, they hit home on other targets.

One marine was hit straight through his chest with a bolt of superheated plasma, killing him instantly. Another one lost their arm to a shot, and rolled across the deck screaming in pain.

The gunner on their vehicle returned fire, but the vehicles gave a burst of speed and whizzed past the fire. As they retargeted the vehicle, Tails quickly bailed, hitting the sand quickly and spinning off to avoid the incoming fire.

Behind him, he heard the heavy form of the UNSC super soldier as he hit the ground. The Chief hit the ground and pulled off his rocket launcher off his back.

Suddenly, the grey vehicle exploded with the force of a hundred grenades. Tails was thrown to the ground from the airblast of the explosion.

As he hit the ground, the Chief fired a round from his launcher. The rocket impacted against the first purple vehicle, and it detonated in a ball of orange and blue fire.

Tails instinctively lowered his head as debris flew through the air. His ears rang.

From the corner of his eye, he spotted a single marine who had managed to escape staring at the burning wreckage.

The second purple vehicle turned towards the Möbian. It's forward facing turrets tracked him and warmed up. He reaponded immediately, diving to the side, using his namesakes to give him as much of a boost as he could. Plasma exploded from the vehicle, powering through the area he'd once stood.

Tails watched as it slammed into the final marine remaining. The human stood and took the first few rounds to the chest, and then fell and remained still. Tails turned back to the purple vehicle. It slowly came around and locked onto him.

Suddenly, a collection of bullets tore through the air, impacting the pilot. An Unggoy tumbled out of the hovering machine and lay still.

The Chief quickly stepped up to the vehicle and pulled himself on board. As he powered it on he spun it around to face the hill. For a brief second, he caught Tails' eye and gestured for him to follow him uphill with a nod of his head; and then he sent the vehicle hurtling uphill.

Tails found himself thinking on how similar that action was to something Sonic would have done, but all the same was so different. Sonic always had a sense of Impatience, while Tails gathered none from the Chief. He seemed almost like he was just telling him which way he was going. The Brute name for him was Demon. And Tails understood why. The man seemed to lack any emotions, or at least the ability to express them. He did not seem to care, or to mourn the soldiers that had just died, Although he had avenged them brutally and quickly. To his allies, the Chief was a huge asset; and yet, to his enemies, he was no other than death incarnate.

Tails looked back at the burning wreckage of the formerly human occupied vehicle. Then he turned and headed uphill at top speed.

Ahead, the cyborg drove the purple hover-vehicle into a swarm of bird-like aliens. They squawked as then were run down, and the Chief bailed backwards off the vehicle. It slammed into the wall and detonated. He turned and drew his rifle.

Tails reached the top of the hill and took in the scene briefly. Two marines were standing by the wreckage of some kind of truck, exchanging fire with a group of Covenant. One marine manned a turret attached to the rear section of said truck, and the covenant ducked behind several barricades to avoid this heavy fire. They seemed to not have noticed either him or the Chief. Big mistake.

Tails glanced over at the super soldier, who took aim on a nearby cluster of Unggoy. Tails closed his eyes and exhaled slowly, and then charged a spindash.

The cracks and bangs of bullets and plasma rounds grew faint for a brief moment. Then he released, smashing into the aliens. They were thrown to and fro, and the marines quickly cut them down.

The Chief unleashed several volleys on the stunned Brutes. Bullets rang against their armor, which glowed light blue under the fire.

Tails backed out of the crossfire range, but was ambushed by a single brute in greenish armor whom had ducked behind a rock for cover.

The Möbian reacted quickly, doing the only thing that came to mind. He twisted on his heel, sticking out his namesakes as he spun. His tails were almost as hard concrete, and hit with the force of them. The ape-like creature gave a cry of shock as he fell backwards, obviously surprised by the force that the little creature had struck with. He hit the dirt. Tails twisted in midair, redirecting his velocity and bringing his tail back down on the stunned brute's chest. It was very much like a body-slam technic. The advanced armor system overloaded and exploded from the force of his hits. However, he was now in an exposed position, with his momentum spent. The brute recovered faster than he anticipated, grabbing his tail almost immediately and pulling it over himself. Tails hit the sand facedown.

He lashed out with his other tail, panic beginning to set in as he was left at the mercy of the ginormous creature. He got lucky. He managed to hit the brute's arm. It snarled and released it instinctively, even though the kit didn't really manage to hit with much force.

The brute staggered back as Tails landed and gathered himself. He looked up at the towering creature and snarled. Now that he was free, he had the options of fight-or-flight.

He snarled and bared his teeth at his enemy, his namesakes arcing backwards as he prepared for a fight, his instincts taking over. For everything that the Freedom Fighters had taught him back in Möbius, there was something that they hadn't taught him, but his fox instincts took over.

He spun up rapidly and launched himself at the brute. He hit with enough force to bend solid steel. The brute was not solid steel. The Möbian's attack smashed into him, breaking several of his ribs, compressing both of his lungs, and all in all, damaging many of the brutes organs.

He fell, with Tails uncurling from the alien's chest. Tails quickly searched the area around for enemies, the adrenaline still surging through him.

Satisfied he was safe for the immediate time, he inspected the brute below him. The brute was dead. The alien's eyes stared lifelessly upwards, with its reddish blood trickling from its mouth. Tails stepped off the chest of the alien. He felt sick looking at the lifeless body, knowing that HE had done that. But, what disturbed him most was a small part of him that took satisfaction in the fact that the brute was dead.

He examined himself. A decently sized portion of the creature's blood was now matted against his fur along his back... Complete with a few chunks of flesh from the body.

Tails turned and staggered a short distance from the body before falling to his knees and vomiting violently. After a minute or so he sat back and surveyed the area around him.

The fighting had died down, with the brutes having defeated. The Chief was standing by the ruined vehicle, inspecting its cargo for weapons. One of the marines was helping the Chief search, while the other watched Tails from vehicle.

He rose quickly and walked over to them. They said nothing as he approached. The one whom had been watching him offered him water. He took it graciously and quickly ingested most of the liquid inside.

After five minutes. The group set of down and short passageway located behind them. Two marines, one Möbian and a Cyborg.

The Chief had pulled the turret off the vehicle, which the marines had called a warthog. The passageway opened into a large valley. A hole was almost directly ahead of them, with a small land pass leading around the hole in a way the left a steep but short slope. A tower rose over the pit on the left side, with another on a rising path on the right side. Two smaller single person vehicles called "ghosts" prowled the central hole, along with a large vehicle that seemed to be nothing more than a large hover turret called a "wraith".

In order to help move the weapons to the passageway, Tails had had to carry an assault rifle and a sniper rifle. He had no intention of using them, though.

The group took cover behind a rock. The Chief leaned out and surveyed the area. A collection of green rounds rose from behind a mound of rocks and flew into the sky, detonating loudly. Gunfire could be heard briefly as well.

"This is the Commander's LZ." A marine explained. "There's a bunch of AA wraiths over the rise there. Once we take them out, the frigate can set down and we can deploy the big guns."

The Chief pulled his head back in. He turned to Tails.

"Sniper." He said briskly.

Tails offered him the rifle. He took it and lay down. He surveyed the valley, and took aim. The others watched as the Cyborg took aim slowly and steadily on the tower to the right. Tails watched his presumed targets through a pair of binoculars.

The two bird-like creatures on the tower to the right were both bipedal. Their legs were almost horselike, though. They held a pair of long, triangular rifles that faintly glowed pink.

The sniper rifle gave a muffled puff, and one of aliens fell soundlessly. The other immediately squawked and backed up, but another shot took him out. The Chief pulled back behind the rock.

"I'll take out the right tower." He said quickly, taking an assault rifle and a collection of grenades.

He sprinted off, heading straight for the tower. The marines and Tails followed him more slowly, not wanting to get in his way. The super-soldier reached reached the tower and went to work on its occupants.

However, at the exact same time, a ghost noticed the three lagging behind. The pilot, an Unggoy, hit the boosters and accelerated up the hill behind them. Tails turned as he heard the ghost's boosters. The marines didn't notice it as quickly as he did.

"Duck!" He yelled, diving to the side as it opened fire.

One marine was lucky, he managed to avoid the shots of the single-person vehicle. The other, however, did not. Three shots smashed into his back, and he fell to the dirt. Tails turned and glanced up at the vehicle. The ghost turned and targeted the other marine, the one who had given him the water bottle after the battle back before the passage.

Tails got up and launched off, spinning up his namesakes and speeding towards the ghost. The pilot tried to turn, but was too slow. Tails sped beneath the left wing of the vehicle and sprang upwards. The Unggoy was knocked clean from his perch and hit the dirt. The marine opened fire on the Unggoy, killing it.

"Thanks." They muttered.

Tails shrugged it off. He climbed on the vehicle. The ghost had an interesting control scheme. There was a pair of handles that changed direction, which had triggers to fire the weapons. A pair of foot pads controlled speed. Not a terribly intuitive system, Tails thought.

The other ghost sped around the foot of the hill. Tails pulled hard on the left handle and spun the ghost around, opening fire on the enemy one.

Plasma smashed against the hull of ghost, and it flipped over. The pilot hit the ground and was knocked unconscious. The marine moved to attempt to take the fallen ghost. Tails drove the vehicle downhill. Immediately; he spotted the wraith. Unable to get an angle at them on the hill, it had held its fire; until now. Tails yelped as the plasma mortar detonated a few feet away from him.

The plasma didn't so much explode as it did just melt through the rocks. A few drops of plasma over-spilled from the explosion, burning his fur and skin on contact. He hissed and turned the ghost towards the tank.

The plasma mortar glowed, charging up for another shot. Tails loosed a few shots off, put these had no effect on the tank's armor. He hit the boosters and dodged the next ball if plasma as it whizzed by overhead.

Tails looked up out the tank, hopelessness filling him. However, he'd forgotten about the Chief. The cyborg lunged down into the pit, landing behind the wraith. He stood and drew a grenade in fluid motion. He pulled the pin with a tug of his index finger and brought his arm up.

The grenade landed in the rear section of the wraith, straight in the hole in the back of it. It bounced into the core, became wedged in the rotating mechanisms, and detonated.

The main turret exploded, and then the stores plasma breached containment and melted through most of the wraith, before it finally gave a final detonation.

The super-soldier slowly marched around the wreckage of the vehicle. He seemed unfazed by the twisted materials and plasma pooling beside him.

The other marine drove the other ghost down the hill and joined the pair of them at the foot of the rise out of the pit. The sandy plain above them was occupied by a pair of modified wraiths that fired smaller, green projectiles up, into a mob of various air vehicles that engaged each other.

To the right, a low rocky hill covered a collection of Covenant soldiers with a plasma placement.

They came to a quick plan. Chief and Tails would take one Wraith each, leaving the marine to wipe out the covenant encampment.

They went. Tails hit the accelerator on his ghost and sped towards his chosen wraith. He knew the ghost lacked the fire to take it out; but he had a grenade which the Chief had given him, and knew where to put it.

Something about that cold metal ball in his hand was extremely satisfying. And yet, it felt wrong in taking satisfaction in that weapon, as he knew he was probably end up killing the occupants of the wraith with it.

Although, he was not aiming to do that, just to disable the tank. The gunner spotted the ghost gunning towards his tank and attempted to get the angle. He couldn't, so the pilot redirected the whole tank towards the Möbian. He pulled right hard immediately, avoiding the initial plasma rounds.

He exhaled loudly; he hadn't expected the vehicle to turn that quickly. He redirected and boosted to avoid falling of the cliff, and then aimed for the left rear wing of the tank. The plasma turret opened fire. Round splattered against the ghost. The screen blared red, and Tails hissed.

He had to bail; this thing couldn't hold up against that kind of fire. He kicked off, full weight on his back, spinning backwards as he whizzed forwards, when he had rotated so his back was upwards, he spun up his namesakes. He narrowly whizzed over the left wing of the wraith and reversed his velocity. The ghost exploded violently, but Tails landed mostly unharmed, grenade in hand.

As the wraith began to spin, Tails flew forward at nearly a hundred meters a second, and threw the grenade.

It landed directly inside of the swirling core of the tank. The core stopped spinning as it was clogged by the metal object. Tails mentally counted down from five until detonation.

Nothing.

Tails launched himself to the side and spun at high speed, behind him plasma rounds spattering against the sand. Tails yelped, swearing at himself internally.

He hadn't pulled the pin before releasing the grenade. He'd essentially just thrown a small metal object into the tank. He wanted to punch himself, but the wraith gunner would not let him get away, swinging his turret rapidly and precisely to block the Möbian from finding cover.

And then the wraith shut down, going dark for no reason. The turret failed and the hover systems shut down. The gunner snarled something as he realised that the thing wasn't working.

Tails realised that the grenade actually HAD had an effect on the wraith; it must have shut down the power, disabling the tank. He snorted; he'd actually achieved his intended goals.

The brute manning the turret swore and cussed away as his system simply failed to work. In no immediate danger, Tails checked on the other two. The marine and their ghost was making short work of the covenant. And the Chief; he was literally beating the wraith into submission; huge chunks of metal fell apart as his fist smashed into the front section of the tank.

It was a true testament to the strength of the super-soldier. It seemed extensively violent, but was there to mostly prove a point. It was like something that Knuckles would do in a bad mood.

Tails heard thrusters in the air; and several vehicles sped over the rise and into the air above the plain. Their colour scheme matched the Chief's, so Tails assumed they were friendly. One of the vehicles was huge and bulky; its wings were thick and bulky and the main body was almost egg shaped.

The other three escort craft were long and thin, seemingly a mixture between a helicopter and a plane; It had two wings, but at the end of each was a pair of thrusters. They reminded him of bees.

They launched a few missiles at the last wraith, obliterating it.

"Ma'am?" A voice called over the UNSC COM. "The coast is clear."

Tails jumped; he'd forgotten about the COM. He checked his earpiece. A bit dented, but nothing that couldn't be fixed.

"Rodger that." The woman called back over the COM. "Beginning my descent."

The three regrouped in the centre of the valley. It was silent for a few seconds.

"What are we waiting for?" Tails asked.

And then, he spotted something out of the corner of his eye. A huge, dark, Y-shaped object darted down from the sky at over Mach 3. At the last second, it pulled up and redirected towards their valley. The frigate grew rapidly, having not lost any speed on its approach.

Tails marvelled at the technology required for the ship to change its direction so rapidly without losing any speed during it. At the last second before reaching the valley, the starship opened something a slowed to a stop with an immediate loud bang.

The roaring of thrusters and engines filled the air as the frigate settled into the ground. The debris of the wraiths were thrown across the valley. The three took stances to resist the pressure of the thrusters. Tails had to spin full out against it for a second, while the marine was fortunately secured by the Chief.

"Thanks, Chief." The commander said. "I wouldn't have lasted much longer up there."

The large undercarriage hovered a few meters above the ground. Three platforms hissed, and descended. Along these platforms, there were a collection of tanks.

The marine with them laughed with glee at the sight if these vehicles.

These tanks, however, had four pairs of tracks, and the turret was more shifted towards the back. Without hesitation, the three tanks rolled off the platforms and formed up.

The larger of the hovering aircraft touched down. From it, a tall dark-skinned marine climbed out.

"All right marines!" He bellowed. "Yeh hear me? We are takin' this fight back, to 'em Covvies. And this time, we've been given some N-I-C-E toys to play with. Don't you boys n' girls go wastin' 'em now."

A quite cheer went through the marines, and they moved to climb aboard the tanks. A grey sphere with a blue light floated above them.

"Reclaimer?" It asked in a rather eccentric voice. "Shall I help you pick a vehicle?"

The Chief merely brushed him off, heading for the nearest tank.

"Oh my." The blue sphere said, suddenly dropping up to Tails' face.

Tails backed up instinctively.

"What have we here? An uncatalouged species? How did you get here? Oh my. So many questions!" He exclaimed, scanning Tails with a blue beam.

"Will you stop?" Tails asked, trying to stand out of the line of sight of the hovering orb.

"And what tha hell are you?" The commanding marine asked, taking a few steps towards the Möbian.

"My name is Tails." He muttered. "I'm a Möbian and- will you just go away?"

The orb did not comply, only continuing scanning.

"He's with us, Sarge." The marine that had taken out the encampment said. "He was helping me and the Chief. He single-handily disables out one of those AA wraiths."

The Sargent nodded, apparently satisfied with that answer.

"So long as you're with us, that's fine by me." He replied. "Now listen up marines. The Commander wants us to punch a hole in the Covenant line. Chief, you lead the way."

"Hoo-Rah!" Came a shout from the marines, and they mounted vehicles with purpose.

Tails couldn't help but share in some of the optimism amongst the marines. They now had the firepower. There was now the excitement of no longer running around barely surviving. It was now time to really take the fight to the Covenant.


	4. Chapter 4

**EYY! I put out two parts to different stories in one night! Ah well, I don't have much to say about why it took so long, I pretty much summarised that in my other update. Ah well, it was mostly that I was busy with other things.**

 **And now onto** ** _The Reviewer's_** **well, uh review, seeing as I can't comment back on it. Thanks for the compliments and for well, pointing out my horrible grammar at places. And for that bit about Sonic and MC dodges and stuff… looking abck I really have no idea what I was writing there, looking back. I'd say I was just trying to make Chief more powerful so he wasn't completely dwarfed by the feats of Tails or Sonic when he shows up later on. But in my own headcannon anyway, I've always thought of Sonic being fast, but not reacting fast, where as Chief's kinda the opposite?**

 **I'm spending way too much time trying to justify myself, aren't I. I didn't know that you could post FF on spacebattles. Huh. I might do that in the future.**

 **Anyway guys, R &R and thanks for all the favs and support and all.**

Chapter 4:

Sally jumped back instinctively as the room came to life. She immediately ignited her other blade and shifted into a combat stance. She surveyed the room as several metal objects rose on their own power.

She examined the floor. There wasn't anything that pointed to pressure pads, so she hadn't stood on something.

"What did you do?" She asked angrily, turning back to the fat man behind her.

Eggman's eyebrows were furrowed; his head tilted slightly as he examined the room, mouth slightly agape. He seemed not to have heard her.

"Who said that?" He growled.

"I said th-" The princess began irritably, but he cut her off.

"Not you." He hissed. "Who said reclaimer?"

Sally frowned, confused. "No one said that."

"I have not detected any sounds like that, doctor." Nicole added.

The bald man frown and took another step into the room. Suddenly, his eyebrows raised above his googles.

"There it is again." He muttered. "Except this time, free me."

Sally had still heard nothing. She strained her ears, but heard nothing. Möbian ears general had a higher range of hearing than an Overlander's, so she should have heard anything that he did.

"You must be going insane, doctor." She replied.

He turned back to her, looking annoyed.

"I know what I hear-"

 _Free me._

Sally jumped and swept her gaze across the room. Nothing had changed. She'd heard the voice.

"You heard that, then, didn't you." Eggman laughed slightly, "I win. I was right."

"The voice seems to be emanating from the entire room." Nicole noted. "I cannot determine a source."

The only change Sally could see was the column at the centre of the room, which seemed to pulse in time with the voice.

 _Help me, reclaimer._

The voice was deep and melodic. Somewhat entrancing, Sally found.

"How do we free you?" She asked.

Place your hand upon the console.

She took a step forward towards the console.

 _No. Only the reclaimer can free me. That is the way my prison is designed._

She stopped and looked back at Eggman. He was staring down the blue ball bouncing above the console.

"You?" She asked.

"Me." He replied simply. "And nice try, however you are."

The voice was silent.

Sally was confused.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"This whole station seems to have been built several hundreds of thousands from the nearest galaxy. What better place away from civilised life for a prison?" He answered, a slight grin breaking out across his face. "Perhaps another time I might have freed you, but I've got enough on my plate anyway. Last thing I want is to be stuck here during an interstellar prison break. Bad Luck for you."

The blue lights across the room suddenly darkened to red.

 _You will free me._

"Unlikely." Eggman snorted.

Sally began to retreat away from the console slowly, blades at the ready in the event something, anything, showed up with hostile intentions.

 _I was not offering you a choice. I was stating a fact._

"Atmospheric composition changing!" Nicole suddenly warned. "It's injecting some kind of gas into the air!"

Eggman grunted and turned back towards the entrance.

"No thanks." He announced, and took a step forwards.

Suddenly he froze; and his arms slacked. Facing away from her. He seemed like her fallen asleep.

Sally's own mind seemed to be failing; becoming more and more mushy and hazy.

"It's some kind of airborne mind control drug!" Nicole shouted.

Sally was almost too far gone at that point; but took a step forward and fell. The drug's effects took their toll on her system.

The mind control drug was a mix secreted by the blind wolves, a creature of the ark whom the forerunners had deemed worth saving. These creatures secreted a drug capable of controlling the mind of any human.

While Möbians shared some very similar internals with humans, they were different enough that Sally was saved the drug's more dangerous effects, however, she was still basically paralysed.

 _Good. Now free me._

Eggman spun on the spot. He stood straighter than she'd ever seen him, and he began to approach the console. She tried to stand; to do anything to stop him, but it was useless. She couldn't even get to her hands and knees.

"Nicole." She rasped sluggishly. "Can you do anything?"

"Negative, Princess."

Eggman's face was uncharacteristically blank. She could only watch as he approached the console and placed his palm on the top pad.

The room grew silent. The blue ball floating above the console disappeared suddenly.

 _Yes._

A rumbled filled the room. Next thing Sally knew, her head was cleared entirely. She quickly stood, for a second, she was disorientated, but it passed as soon as it came.

 _Freedom!_

Eggman staggered away from the console. His raised the arm with his blaster on it and surveyed the room.

"What did you do to me!" He roared angrily.

"He made you free him." The Princess replied blatantly.

A panel opened on the roof, and without a second to spare, a small sphere-like object dropped from it. The thing was a mostly spherical object; however it had a yellow light attached to its forward face.

"Greetings." It announced. "This our first time meeting face to face. I am Tragic Solitude, monitor of Installation 00."

Eggman targeted it immediately.

"You're free now." He grunted. "Happy?"

"I was never imprisoned, reclaimer." Solitude replied.

His voice was much more high pitched in real life, and lacked its mysteriousness from earlier. "I merely needed you hand to free my prisoner."

"But... Couldn't you do that yourself?" Sally asked, confused.

"032 Mendicant Bias was imprisoned upon this installation with the highest security. The only way to release him was by releasing the security mechanisms imposed by my creators." He explained. "Only the touch of a reclaimer could do such."

"What do you intend to do now?" Nicole asked.

"That is quite simple, construct." Solitude replied. "I will use Bias to destroy all the reclaimers in the galaxy. I will crush the Foreunners legacy and take it myself. I will fire the Array and cleanse the galaxy, and then I will silence the galaxy and reshape life itself. I shall become a god."

"You're insane." Sally retorted, settling into a fighting stance.

"Insanity is relative. To me, this is, quite simply, ingenious. Ask your doctor here about it. He knows what I'm talking about." Solitude laughed, his form lowering itself to the floor and sweeping across it. "But first, I must cleanse this Installation. I will activate the prometheans and the retrievers and wipe this installation clean."

"I'll tell you one thing." Eggman snarled. "Only I get to destroy the world. No one else."

He opened fire with his wrist mounted blaster. Several Plasma rounds dashed against the monitor. They did no damage to the ancient machine. He drifted back towards his entrance hole.

"I will give you one last thing. An honourable death. You look like you like to fight. Enjoy." His last words were laced with venom.

He whizzed up into his hole and vanished. The hole sealed itself up immediately.

"Sally," Nicole warned. "We should leave, right now."

"I agree with that." Eggman announced, jogging across the room quickly.

Just as the group reached the frame of the entrance, there were four bright flashes from the other side of the chamber.

Sally turned.

"What the..." She began, but spotted four new figures. They were all metal bipeds, all of them made up of several small metallic components formed into a central body. Orange light glowed from their internals. They all wielded a long grey shaft.

"Those must be our 'assassins'" Eggman muttered, raising his blaster.

"We should hurry." Sally said. "Not fight."

"They can teleport, princess. They'll keep pace with us regardless. Better to defeat them here than deal with them later, where we have the element of surprise on our capabilities."

As much as she hated to admit it, Eggman was right. They'd have to fight them eventually.

The bipeds stepped forward in sync, all raising their shafts. Orange blades ignited from either end of them.

"What are those?" She asked Nicole.

"They seemed to be some kind of double ended spear, complete with a sharp end made up of what seems to be hard inhibited light. They would collide and hold against your blades." The AI replied.

Sally felt nervous at that. From what she'd grasped from when they were built, they were a structure of superheated plasma held together with a magnetic field generated by the ring attached to her wrist. They'd cut through anything, and if anything could hold against it, then it was extremely tough.

Nevertheless, she stepped forward, once again settling into a combat stance. Beside her, Eggman raised his blaster arm and took aim.

"Be careful, Sally," Nicole warned. "We don't know what these robots are capable of."

"I will." She whispered back.

They bipeds reached the halfway point of the room. Eggman opened fire. A single shot smashed into the closest biped. It was thrown backwards and hit the ground.

Some kind of armor, the same colour of their internals, flared around them, seemly protecting them from damage. The biped gave a snarl and rolled backwards onto its feet. Eggman fired another shot.

The small ball of plasma dashed against he same biped. It's shielding glowed more brightly.

"It appears to have some kind of protective energy shielding." Nicole noted.

The third shot hit home to a different result. The shielding completely failed; it seemed to almost explode outwards in orange squares as it did. The remains of the plasma dashed against the biped. It staggered backwards.

"Energy shielding down!" Nicole exclaimed.

They could be hurt then.

Eggman took aim. However, around this point, Sally realised that other bipeds were getting to close for comfort. Her turn to do something now.

She sprinted forward at the biped closest to her. It raised its shaft in a motion of preparing to bring it down in front of her. Out of the corner of her eye, Eggman's next shot sent the biped onto its back with a cry of protest.

She rolled to the side slightly, maintaining her trajectory while avoiding the downward strike. She extended her left arm, the blade dashed against the biped's leg.

Immediately, the force and the plasma broke the shields, and her blade ploughed through the leg. It nearly cut straight through, but glanced across the leg. The biped roared in anger and pain.

Sally didn't pause, however. As she stood from her roll, in the same movement, she swept her free hand through the back of the biped. The machine gave a cry and fell forward. Sally lunged onto its back and slammed both of her blades onto its back.

The biped shattered. Dozens upon dozens of little particles appeared in its place as the biped dissolved.

She rolled forwards and stood, she turned to face to the other biped, whom was staring her down.

She stood in a defensive stance.

"More of them!" Nicole called out, and several cracks could be heard from the other side of the room. Sally estimated that there were three or four more bipeds in the room with them now.

Great. She thought. Just great.

The biped attacked. She anticipated it to act like its brother before, but instead, this one went with an immediate forward strike. She parried the blade with her left arm and cut the blade of with a right handed strike.

Taking advantage of her momentum, she used her spin to add addition force to her left arm, which struck the biped's chest.

The machine roared and disintegrated.

Sally quickly took a breather and examined the chamber. There were two bipeds advancing on her, and the rest surrounded Eggman. He was holding one of their shafts, evidently holding them back with the weapon.

She blinked. She'd never thought of Eggman as much of a hand-to-hand fighter himself, but thinking about it, a lot of the times that they fought him, he was generally in some kind of robot or power suit.

And while they did enhance his strength and speed, you still needed to be able fight in he first place to make use of them. Perhaps Eggman had a great deal of hidden talents like such. She shuddered to think of what they were.

One of the bipeds made a charge on the bald man. He twisted and smacked the point of the way with his own. Spinning on its momentum, he drove the other end clean through the biped. The machine disintegrated.

The two remaining bipeds continued to circle him. Then, with unspoken unity, they converged. Eggman fired a blast at one, stunning in briefly, and moved to engage the other.

Sally quickly turned and engaged two approaching her. The first one thrust its spear. She sidestepped and slashed the shaft of it. She lunged with her other free blade and planted it in its chest.

As the biped disintegrated, Sally spotted the other out of the corner of the her eye.

"Sally, look out!" Nicole screamed.

The biped had its spear raised high over its head, aimed at her. There was no time to stop it as it began its stab.

But still she tried...

Suddenly, A plasma round dashed against the thing's face. It was thrown backwards and staggered. Sally twisted and cut the hands of the biped.

It snarled angrily and raised its wrists to slam against her. She lashed out in turn and cut it in half. The biped disintegrated.

She turned back to Eggman. Two bipeds approached him from either side. Somehow, he expertly sliced through the air and cut the first biped down. As it disintegrated into the orange particles, he spun the spear and slammed the rear end straight through the other biped. It fell backwards.

Evidently, Eggman had learned a thing of two from fighting Sonic for all those years. Admittedly, he wasn't as fast as he would have needed to be to actually be a danger to Sonic without a power suit or some kind of armor, but these bipeds weren't supersonic.

One biped remained. It's head darted across the room, examining the two and plotting its strategy. Sally once again set her knees in a defensive stance. Eggman raised his spear and threw. It fell short, but had the intended effect. It stepped backwards and then broke into particles and streamed across the room and into its dark recesses.

"Thanks." Sally said as her and Eggman regrouped at the entrance.

"They will be after us now." Nicole said. "But we have some time now that all of them were destroyed."

"Where do we go?" She asked.

"I'd say..." The fat man mused. "We should head to those three towers where those purple ships were headed. Their designs seems completely different, and thus they may shelter us, or at least assist us."

"Is that really our best plan?" Sally asked.

"Statistically, our best option would be to lie low, however, our chance of getting back to Möbius drops to virtually zero." Nicole informed them. "The doctor's option is the next best option."

They were now walking back up the set of caves that had led to the underground chamber. Sally became aware of how unintentionally fast Eggman was. A single stride of his required her to jog to keep up.

He probably wouldn't last as long when it came to long distance trekking, at least, hopefully.

"How far off are those buildings?" Eggman asked.

"Perhaps about fifty kilometers." Nicole responded.

"Hmm..." He grunted quietly.

They walked on in silence.

The door slid upwards.

The Master Chief immediately pushed forward, his assault rifle at the ready. He quickly surveyed the chamber, expecting brute resistance. He didn't spot any, and lowered his rifle.

He advanced. He spotted the remains of a destroyed sentinels to his left, but other than that, there was nothing else of interest worth seeing.

He heard something lightly enter the chamber behind him. A quick glance confirmed his suspicions. It was just the little fox-like alien that had been following him.

Normally, such a thing would have frustrated the Chief, as it would have essentially put him on escort duty, but the fox, or the Möbian, as he called himself, was fast and resourceful enough to both keep himself alive, and keep pace with the Spartan.

The Chief had some respect for anyone who could do that, regardless of species. Besides, the Möbian had a collection of tricks that while making no sense or bing physically impossible, he still did regardless, and they were effective against the Covenant. He could even fly using his two tails, somehow.

If he ever found- No. When he found Cortana, he would have to ask her the physics of that.

The Chief spotted a door further down the chamber, on the left side. He quickly approached, flattening himself against wall next to the door.

He made ready for a breaching movement. There could be anything one the other side of the door. He swept his hand out and laid it on the central pad of the door. It immediately spread open.

The Master Chief raised his fist with three fingers extended for to count down the time to breach. The Möbian spun his tails and launched over to the wall beside the Spartan.

Three.

Two.

One.

He burst off and spun. Quickly surveying the new room, or more accurately walkway, revealed no hostiles.

He glanced down into the pit to the left, revealing that it opened out into another chamber.

On the left side, the UNSC vehicles were clustered around the generation point of a Forerunner light bridge.

"Quickly, reclaimer!" Guilty Spark yelled, appearing from seeming nowhere. "Activate the light bridge so that your troops can cross!"

The Chief quickly surveyed the walkway, spotting a forerunner console with a glyph of some kind on it. He walked over, hosltering his rifle and placing his hand on the glyph. He made a closing gesture and it shifted to adjust to his instructions. Below him, the light bridge flared to life.

"Cool." He heard the Möbian whisper from beside him.

He hadn't even heard him approach. The Möbian's lack of armor definitely made him a stealthy presence, especially if he could sneak up on the Chief, whom had superhuman hearing.

The UNSC forces fired up their vehicles and moved to cross the bridge. He stood and watched for fifteen seconds or so, and then headed for the other door off the balcony.

This led him (with the Möbian following) through a set of chambers. Eventually they rendezvoused with the UNSC column at a set of doors outside the Forerunner structure, on the other side.

A sandy hill decended before them. There were several rocks strewn across it. Covenant vehicles hid amount at these. Perfect cover.

"Alright, first line, push forward!" Sargent Stacker yelled over the COM.

The Master Chief knew it was time to mount up, and moved to take control of a Scorpion tank.

However, something interrupted the convoy. This interuption came in the form of a huge scarab climbing over them.

Several marines yelled, one screamed; however, the scarab wasn't interested in them, or so it seemed. The massive walker climbed over the sandy rise to their right, and vanished over the other side.

"Scarab's gone!" One marine yelled.

"Worry about it later marines, take the first line!" Stacker growled.

"Aye, sir!" Came the response.

A marine allowed the Chief to take his tank.

"It's fine sir." He said. "I could barely drive that thing anyway. I mean, why are there six pedals if there are only four directions?" (I couldn't resist the RvB reference lol.)

The Chief took the lead. He sent the tank down a pathway of rocks, ambushing several Covenant soldiers and a couple of ghosts.

He lost sight of the Möbian, but he wasn't concerned by that; The Möbian was creative enough to assure the Spartan he'd be fine.

"First line, clear." Stacker Barked as the UNSC forces pushed through the first covenant blockade. "Second line, push forward!"

The UNSC forces engaged the second blockade. The Chief's Scorpion scored a direct hit on the turret of a wraith, and the tank exploded in a bright blue flash.

He shifted the tank into the next gear and accelerated down the slope. A ghost fired a few shots at the tank, to which the Chief responded to with a tank shell. A thunderous explosion rent apart the purple vehicle.

A handful of brutes were taking shelter under a bubble shield. The sphere was covered in a hexagonal design. The shields would take anything he throw at it, but he could bypass it by walking through it. He didn't really. Understand how it blocked a tank shell but couldn't stop a person, but it wasn't has job to question.

A fuel rod cannon shot tore through the air and smashed home against the turret of the Scorpion. The Spartan growled as he attempted to reverse out of the Brute's line of fire, but took another round that destroyed his forward right track.

The Master Chief exhaled loudly; the scorpion was toast, and he had to bail. He twisted in the cockpit and hit the emergency release for the cockpit hatch.

The hatch exploded off and the Spartan lunged out almost immediately. Plasma and spoke whizzed through the air. A few impacted off his shields, draining them by a quarter.

He slid and took cover behind the rock. His scorpion exploded in a ball of fire. Almost immediately, the UNSC force swept into the plain. The Brutes shield failed, and they were torn apart by gauss and tank fire. The Covenant resistance was shattered. A few grunts ran around the central tower, screaming.

The Möbian appeared from seeming nowhere and took cover behind the same rock as the chief.

"Do you hear that?" He suddenly asked.

The Spartan turned, surprised. He strained his ears for a few seconds.

He heard nothing outside the gunfire of the battle below.

"It w-" He began.

Thud.

He heard it; a faint impact somewhere in the distance.

"Scarab's back!" A marine screamed; "And this time it means business!"

The huge four legged walker climbed over the building to the right and dropped down at the dead center of the valley.

"Bravo, Flank and cover!" Stacker barked over the COM. "I want everybody supporting the chief on this one he'll take it down!"

The walker's armor was hit by fire from the UNSC vehicles; and a handful of warthogs engaged the Brute vehicles around the scarab. The walker staggered about, it's face cannon opening up, smashing one of the vehicles aside.

"Got a plan?" The Möbian asked from beside the Spartan.

He said nothing, but nodded briefly; there was a large Foreunner structure right before the scarab; In fact, it was taking shelter from the UNSC tanks there. Only its main turret was elevated above the platform.

He raised a hand and gestured forward, then took off. Around that time, two ghosts powered down the slope to the right and engaged the warthogs. More plasma whizzed through the air. The Chief lunged forward and managed to make it inside the structure without injury. Evidently the Möbian hadn't followed him in.

Ah well. Probably was for the better.

"Now what?" The kitsune asked as he appeared beside the Spartan.

He turned, surprised, but didn't say anything. He drew his BR and gestured to head up to the top of the structure. He took the exit on the far side from the slope entrance and headed around that way.

Another sequence of Scorpion tanks fired, and rounds screamed overhead. Explosions from the detonations rumbled. The Scarab returned fire with it's topside plasma cannon. The rounds sliced through the air, but the scorpions moved out of the way as the rounds melted through the sand. The Chief paused and looked behind him as the Möbian streamed by quickly, riding on the air with his tails.

The Spartan paused to ponder it, before deciding now wasn't the time. As he turned back, a ghost peeled about the corner and opened fire at him. He immediately dove to the side and scrambled for the top of the structure to hide over the edge of the slope.

He didn't need to though, as a tank hit the ghost dead center instead, shattering the ghost apart. The scarab's upper turret locked onto the two, but they were both fast enough to evade the plasma projectiles as they came.

Without a word, the Spartan sprinted forward towards the vehicle. It attempted to fire, but another salvo of tank shells hit home, breaking the turret apart. The Spartan reached the edge of the platform and launched himself through the air. Against all odds, he hit home, landing on one of the elevated platforms directly beside the main cannon of the scarab.

He immediately drew his battle rifle again and charged up the slope. He reached the top and truned back towards where a collection of Brutes were standing, a few having watched him jump across. However, they quickly became more interested in the Möbian as he launched across the gap, hitting hard against a brute. The fox had at some point curled into an almost ball-like form, which knocked the brute's armor off and threw him down to the floor in front of the Spartan.

The Supersoldier fired a burst into the fallen alien to keep him down, and then his motion tracker pinged a contact advancing from behind. The Spartan turned and ducked low to the ground as he did so. The beast tripped over the Spartan's low form and immediately hit the deck. The Spartan turned back to spare the Möbian a glance, but he seemed to be doing abosolutely fine, jumping up and curling into the ball he had before to impact against a brute advancing on him, the alien was thrown backwards and tripped off the scarab.

The Spartan sprinted off towards the end of the scarab, making it there in just a second, he spun as he did and opened fire on the core. The shots hit home in sequence, breaking the shield. The remainder of shots hit home against the worms that made up the inner workings of the scarab, though seemed to fail to make any damage.

An explosion rumbled through the tank, and the rear plating facing the core fell away under the bombardment of the scorpions. The Spartan looked out the back, before drawing his last frag grenade. Pulling the pin, he jammed it into the scarab's worm connections, before turning and springing out of the core room and jumping off the walker.

Upon him hitting the ground, the grenade detonated loudly. The huge walker seemed to groan as it began to pulse with some kind of weird siren. Plasma vented from several openings. It was seconds away from detonation. He spared a second to glance back up at the walker, and spotted the Möbian hover above it, looking somewhat confused. He spotted the Spartan and looked and him quizzically.

The Spartan gestured a "come here" motion. The Möbian obeyed, swooping down from the walker. The Chief took off to take cover behind the forerunner structure a short distance away. He heard a rapid spinning noise as the Möbian followed him in.

"What did you mean by that?" He asked, a second before the scarab detonated.

A blinding white flash lit up the valley. The Spartan looked back out a second afterwards to see fragments of debris beginning to fall. The Möbian rubbed his eyes off to the side, evidently having being temporarily blinded by the scarab's explosion.

A shadow fell across the valley for a brief second, and the Spartan looked up towards the sky. The huge _Shadow of Intent_ swept down from space, slowing as it approached the tower to the right.

"Not bad, Spartan!" Called the shipmaster. "I saw that explosion from orbit! Truth's fleet lies in ruins. Find where the liar hides… So I may place my foot between his rump!"

The Möbian gasped as he came out and looked up to see the massive carrier slowly descending towards the tower in the distance.

"We'll know soon enough, Shipmaster." Keyes replied coolly over the COM.

"Infantry on the Spire." Johnson called over the COM. "Mop 'em up!"

A pelican swept into the valley and rained down a collection missiles upon the tower to clear out the tower. A hail of Scorpion shots hit the lower levels, clearing them out too.

"What now?" The Möbian asked from beside him.

The Spartan looked down for a second, before raising his battle rifle and adavancing on the spire.

"We still have work to do." He said.


End file.
